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Aspect Edit - The Sonic 2 SMS Editor

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by Glitch, Feb 15, 2009.

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  1. Glitch

    Glitch

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    Ok, I'm not going to get a chance to work on this for a couple of weeks so I'm releasing a preview version here and a quickstart guide here. It requires Java SE 6 to run. Windows users should be able to double-click the jar file to run the app but if you have problems, drop to a command line and run "java -jar AspectEdit.jar".

    Current Functionality:
    - SMS Palette editing
    - Direct editing of un/compressed tile art
    - Mapping editing
    - Level editing (with compression)

    As usual CC is welcomed.

    Additionally there's an updated copy of s2pack available here.
     
  2. Glitch

    Glitch

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    I managed to cram in some more dev time. I've added the following features:

    - Game Gear palette editing.
    - Conversion between GG and SMS palettes (in the case of GG > SMS colours are reduced).
    - Ability to read resources directly from a ROM.
    - Load/save Sonic Chaos levels.
    - Load/save Triple Trouble levels.
    - Conversion between all 3 level formats.

    Download

    Screenshot of Aspect Edit loading Meta Junglira (TT) and Turquoise Hills (SC):
    [​IMG]
     
  3. Ollie

    Ollie

    DIGGY DIGGY HOLE Member
    I had a quick look at this a few days ago and it's all looking very good! I have a feeling that this is going to be a editor for the 8-bit games, then? :P
     
  4. LordOfSquad

    LordOfSquad

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    Why aren't there more replies to this? This is amazing! O__O

    I'm gonna give this a try after work.
     
  5. MDave

    MDave

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    BladeBattles - Indie PC game.
    Absolutely awesome. I am definitely going to tinker around with this. Love the 8 bit Sonic games :specialed:
     
  6. NintendoBrad

    NintendoBrad

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    This looks really great and I'd love to give it a try, but it seems I'm having a bit of trouble having it open anything. I think it needs the seperate data of levels and such from the ROM, but I don't know how to extract it. Sorry to be a bother, but could someone tell me what I need to do?
     
  7. Glitch

    Glitch

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    The new version gives you the option to specify an offset when you open a file. You can use this to read data directly from a ROM (you will need to do this for SC and TT since the data hasn't been split out yet). Alternatively you can checkout the SVN copy of the Sonic 2 SMS disassembly which has the resources split out into individual files.

    As an example here are the offsets for Meta Junglira Act 1:

    (thanks to Doc Eggfan and Rolken for the research into this)

    Foreground palette: 3B91C
    Background palette: 3BAFC
    Tileset: 4C000
    Mappings: 6C000
    Layout: 4A5AA


    Once these are loaded set the "Tile Offset" to 192, level width to 128 and height to 32.
     
  8. Diablohead

    Diablohead

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    Damnit, about to crack on with important uni work and discover this thread XD

    I will surely take a look later on.
     
  9. Espilonarge

    Espilonarge

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    If there's one thing I can suggest doing, it's making it so you don't have to go back and forth between folders when selecting certain disassembly files (eg = saves the location of where the Mapping files are located). Sought of started feeling like it was dragging on a bit constantly going back and forth.
     
  10. CRV

    CRV

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    Does "Aspect" refer to the developer? Assuming this program is only dealing with graphics and not program code, the name might not be completely accurate.

    As far as Sonic 2, Sonic Chaos, and Sonic Triple Trouble are concerned, it looks like Aspect only dealt with programming and sound (the Triple Trouble credits don't mention roles). The graphic staff on 2 and Chaos appear to be from Sega. It would probably be more accurate to say those games were co-developed by Sega and Aspect.
     
  11. Bareirito

    Bareirito

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    Awesome! There will be more Sonic 8-bit hacks. I will try it soon, because I'm doing a hack.
     
  12. Glitch

    Glitch

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    The program is designed to edit resources for Aspect's engine. We can argue semantics all day but the name was just a placeholder anyway. I'm open to suggestions for a renaming.
     
  13. Ultima

    Ultima

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    It'd be nice to have a file that has a list of offsets in given roms for each level, mapping etc. The only part of this you'd need to code is the parsing of that file; someone else can fill the file with all the offsets and such.

    This would make it easier to get started for those who don't know the offsets of the levels or whatnot in the ROM, or don't want to get the SVN release :P
     
  14. JDAdams

    JDAdams

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    Aspect stuff - do these all use similar engines?

    Deep Duck Trouble
    Ax Battler A Legend of Golden Axe
    Legend of Illusion
    Tails Adventure
    Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)
    Sonic Chaos
    Sonic Triple Trouble
    Sonic Blast
     
  15. Glitch

    Glitch

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    I'd say that's a fairly safe bet.

    Deep Duck Trouble seems to use the Sonic Chaos level compression scheme. The tileset compression is slightly different though. If you're interested the level headers start at $47B0 and follow the usual format:

    AA BBBB CC DDDD ...

    where
    AA = Mappings Bank
    BBBB = mappings address
    CC = layout bank
    DDDD = layout address

    There are some tilesets at $60000. I'm derailing my own thread so let's leave it there :(
     
  16. ColinC10

    ColinC10

    Tech Member
    Yeah, that's the only improvement I would suggest at the moment too. Perhaps you could use project files like SonED2 to store the files used in the level, as well as the height/width and tile offset values.
     
  17. Shadow Hog

    Shadow Hog

    "I'm a superdog!" Member
    Oh man, the ability to hack Tails Adventures would be hot.

    Hopefully this editor will lead to a few more level hacks? Or even better, let you add rings to the boss stages of Sonic 2, regardless of any glitches that arise.
     
  18. Glitch

    Glitch

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    I believe that's already been done: Sonic 2: Sweet_Relief
     
  19. Glitch

    Glitch

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    New Version. Mainly a bugfix release.

    Changes:
    • Added "export as image" functions to tileset editor & mapping editor (suggested by Yawackhary @ SMS Power)
    • Fixed a bug in level editor which would cause S2 & TT levels to be saved in SC format.
    • Save As/Open dialogs now remember separate paths for each resource type.
    Still To Do:
    • Project file support.
     
  20. Wow, nice work. Looking forward for this.
    Maybe I would use that to hack the Sonic 2 8-bit Game. And maybe it would be nice to see more Sonic 2 SMS Hacks in the future.

    Also, it seems you need Java installed for this. Because I got a .JAR file.
     
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